Free from germs or microorganisms; completely sterile or uncontaminated.
From germ (microorganism) with the privative suffix -less, meaning 'without.' This compound form became common in the 1900s during the public health movement.
The obsession with germless environments in hospitals and homes started with Florence Nightingale and grew into the germaphobe culture of today—though total germlessness is impossible since trillions of bacteria live on our skin!
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